WASHINGTON — Confronting a potential trouble spot, the campaign of Sen. John McCain produced medical records Friday showing that the 71-year-old presumptive Republican presidential nominee is cancer-free and physically able to serve as president.

“Sen. McCain is in excellent physical and mental health at this time,” said Dr. John Eckstein, his internist for 16 years at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. “We can find nothing in his medical history to prevent him from serving as president of the United States with vigor.”

McCain would be the oldest person elected to a first term as president, and some voters have expressed concerns about his age. Campaign officials hope to quash those worries with the release of his medical records.

Four physicians from the Mayo Clinic spoke to reporters and answered questions at length about McCain’s health. About 20 “pool” reporters were allotted three hours to examine 1,173 pages of records covering the past eight years.

In the most recent Quinnipiac poll of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, three key swing states, one-third of independent voters said they are somewhat or entirely uncomfortable with someone entering office as president at McCain’s age.

Sen. Barack Obama, considered the likely Democratic nominee, is 46 years old. His campaign plans to release a summary of his health early this week.

Eight years ago, McCain was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma the size of a dime on his lower left temple. Doctors said they have found no sign that the cancer has come back or spread, and McCain’s skin is checked every three to four months. He also wears sunscreen and baseball caps outdoors and tries to avoid direct sunlight.

The melanoma on his left temple was removed in 2000, but the surgeon made a large incision down the left side of his face to remove a salivary gland and lymph nodes to be sure the cancer had not spread.

“There was and is no evidence of recurrence or (spread) of the invasive melanoma nearly eight years after surgery,” Eckstein said. “Other less-serious skin cancers have been removed over the years. . . . These have been non-melanoma basal cell and squamous cell cancers.”

Altogether, McCain has had four malignant melanomas removed. The other three were limited to the top layers of the skin and were not invasive, his doctors said. Those three were on his left shoulder, left arm and left nasal sidewall, removed in 1993, 2000 and 2002.

Dr. Suzanne Connolly, McCain’s dermatologist, said the senator has several risk factors for skin cancer — pale skin, light eyes, light hair and a history of excessive exposure to sun — though he has no family history of melanoma and no known history of unusual moles.

Connolly said a person who has had one melanoma is at greater risk for having another. But she described the possibility that the invasive cancer would return as being in the low single digits.

Most recently, McCain had an early-stage squamous cell carcinoma, the second-most-common form of skin cancer, removed in February of this year. He also had benign polyps removed during a routine colonoscopy in March and showed signs of diverticulitis, which is an inflammation of the colon.

The health of wife’s finances

McCain’s medical records weren’t the only records released Thursday by the McCain campaign. Also released were the top two summary pages of Cindy McCain’s 2006 tax return.

John McCain’s wife, who two weeks ago said she would never make her tax returns public, revealed Friday that she had a total income of more than $6 million in 2006.

The documents show that Cindy McCain, who files her taxes separately from her husband, paid more than $1.7 million in federal income taxes — a tax rate of more than 28 percent. She reported nearly $570,000 in itemized deductions.

McCain’s campaign said she had received an extension on her 2007 tax returns. Aides said it is likely she would release those when they are filed.

Confined to only the summary pages, her released returns offer limited information. She listed $4.5 million in income from a broad category that includes rental real estate, royalties, partnerships and trusts.

Cindy McCain, heiress to a large Arizona beer distributorship, also reported nearly $300,000 in salary income, more than $280,000 in dividends and more than $740,000 in capital gains.

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